


The Last Letter

by graceolina37



Category: Little Women Series - Louisa May Alcott
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-26
Updated: 2019-12-26
Packaged: 2021-02-26 13:03:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21969757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/graceolina37/pseuds/graceolina37
Summary: Listen, I have never read the book Little Women or seen any adaptation before I saw the new movie a few hours before I wrote this, but I was very in my feels and thought a certain scene could have gone differently so here it is. It's not perfect (or completely accurate, I'm sure) but it helped me through my big sad hours.
Relationships: Theodore Laurence/Josephine March
Comments: 3
Kudos: 108





	The Last Letter

**Author's Note:**

> Listen, I have never read the book Little Women or seen any adaptation before I saw the new movie a few hours before I wrote this, but I was very in my feels and thought a certain scene could have gone differently so here it is. It's not perfect (or completely accurate, I'm sure) but it helped me through my big sad hours.

Jo turned the key with a steady hand, despite the shaking she felt within her body, a rumble deep in her chest that threatened to knock her sanity over a cliff and into the deep ocean. But he wasn't going to let it. She opened the box and reached for the letter, firmly taking it in her grasp. Once in her hand, she glanced down it. The perfect cursive that a hopeful hand had signed Laurie's name in just hours before. And now she felt foolish. Because she felt like the world and the choices she thought she had were stolen from her; because she felt like she had been betrayed by the cruel twistings of fate, but most of all her own self. And she didn't know if she felt more foolish accepting those feelings or pretending that it didn't exist. 

She tried not to think about it as she spun on her heel and walked away from the box and all the memories she had of it for what she decided would be the last time. She tried to believe that she wouldn't feel like she was drowning forever, because there were other important things. This wasn't it for her. But her breath still didn't come as easily as she would have liked it too, like the weight on her chest was keeping too much of it in instead of pushing it out.

It hurt, but she had been here, before. And it would pass.

Her feet moved toward the river with a swiftness practiced so often that not even such an emotional earthquake as the current one could deter it. But as she approached the worn wooden planks of the footbridge, a familiar face made her stop cold for a moment before continuing steadily on in his direction.

“You followed me,” Jo said without making eye contact, staring down at the water as she stood beside her companion.

“Jo,” was all Laurie said in response, and she could hear the wetness in his voice without even looking up to see the tears in his eyes. She knew that he knew He had followed her, and for the first time she hadn't noticed, and now knew. There was no denying it on either end, but Jo knew that life would be better if they weren't trapped in the misery together, so she had to try anyway.

“You don't even know what it says,” she offered, finally looking up at him to wave the letter in his face. It was no use though. After so many years spent together, they knew each other all too well, and his face showed it. Laurie knew that the letter held the key to his greatest desire, and so in turn it was his greatest pain. Jo knew what it was like to be too late, and she had wanted to save him that pain. But his expression showed that she had failed.

“I made a mistake,” Laurie said, his hand coming up to cover his mouth.

“No,” Jo said, reaching up to take his and move it away from his face, “you haven't made any mistakes.”

“But if I had only returned your letters. If I had-” he started before he was interrupted.

“Stop,” Jo said, and she could help but let a few tears escape out of her own eyes, “stop. It's not going to do either of us any good to dwell on it now, is it?”

Laurie didn't say anything, but he wore the same hurt that he did the day Jo had turned him down the first time. She hated to see it again now, she wished they could have been smiling, laughing and doing something inherently silly. But she guessed they would never be able to be like that again. Even though they promised to stay friends, it would always be different. That's what hurts the most about everything.

She ran her thumb across the letter in her hand. It was time to get rid of it. What she said before was true, and dangling the thing she could never have, that neither of them could ever have, right before their noses, was going to drive them both mad. On an impulse, Jo suddenly tore the letter in half and heard a gasp from her side.

“What are you doing?” Laurie asked and made a grab for the letter as a means to save it.

“What's done is done,” Jo said, “and this is just another reminder that I don't want.”

“So we're not even going to try to-”

“It was never supposed to be,” Jo said, cutting him off, “we were always supposed to be friends and that's it. We've tried all we could, but it's God's will that it be this way.”

“But what about Jo’s will?” Laurie asked with something resembling a faint speck of hope elevating his voice.

“I don't believe in that anymore,” Jo said, “I can't. It's a childish thing, and childhood is well over.”

Laurie looked at her like she had lost part of herself. And she had. For Beth was apart of her and Laurie was apart of her and they had both been taken away so quickly that they took more of her than they were supposed to.

Without another moment's hesitation, she threw both halves of the letter into the rushing water below, and this time she heard no protest. The pair stood by the rial for a good few minutes, watching the paper dissolve on its way down the stream before Jo stood up straight and made to leave.

“I'm sure we’re needed in the house,” Jo said. She took one last look at Laurie's face, the last studying glance she promised she would ever take, before pressing a cool kiss to his cheek and walking in the direction of the house. Laurie followed behind her, and Laurie eventually caught up, and the two walked in silence they had never before faced while together.

This is why she hadn't wanted him to know. Because if he didn't know there was a chance for them before he personally took it away it would have saved them both the awkward anguish of what could have been. But instead, they had this. Nothing. And Jo had thought that it couldn't be worse.

Maybe someday he could be her Teddy again, but not now, and not like how he was before. But somehow, Jo would find a way to be okay with that, and Laurie was going to have to too.


End file.
